Thursday, September 18, 2014

Cool Cathedral Things

I remember not putting up a lot of pictures of the arches and ceilings structures in the cathedrals, bridges, and gates, because there are only so many pictures a person can put up.

Here are some neat ones that I enjoy:

Burgos cathedral.

I like the way the crossing vaulting is gracefully arranged. I think it's probably still functional, as you can kind of see the connections between the parts and how they draw down into those umbrella ribs at the corners of the sections.

Leon cathedral--a simpler vaulting design, but still beautiful and functional.

This crossing vault system isn't so decorated. It's just elegant.

Gate in Leon, with Roman centurion atop.

I included this arched gate just because. The centurion on top is quite possibly a lot younger than the gate.

Medieval or Roman bridge. I think this is the bridge that is famous for the Paso de Honor.

This last photo, the bridge that I remember as the one tied up with the Paso de Honor, is quite long, and it has the ancient stones on the surface, or their twins. It's not as horrible to walk on as the Roman roads that had lost there capstones were. It's just sort-of bad. But the day was pretty.

The Paso de Honor is a story of some fellow that was rejected by a lady and took it *way* too personally. He tied himself on one end of the bridge and announced that he was going to fight all comers until either he died or decided that his "wounded" honor was repaired. And he fought a number of fights before getting it out of his system. I find myself not in sympathy with the fellow at all. Maybe he really was a bad match, if that was how he took a rejection.